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14 March 2011

Matthews bails on board position

Elizabeth Matthews is bailing out of her controversial nomination to serve as vice-chair of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore petroleum Board.

It isn’t clear if she is also leaving her appointment to the board itself.

As CBC reports, Matthews is blaming the Opposition Liberals for politicising the entire matter. Matthews served as a communications director for the Liberal administration of Roger Grimes before she left quickly to work for Danny Williams in the Opposition office where he was infamous for slinging wild, political accusations. In another ironic twist, Matthews former boss said he got into politics because he was sick of all the patronage and corruption.

The big twist in the story appears to have come on Friday when the Liberals revealed a December 21 letter from natural resources minister Shawn Skinner to his federal counterpart appointing Matthews to the offshore with effect from 01 January 2011.

And then things went horribly wronger Update:

The Telegram has the full text of Matthews’ statement. For starters, try and find the clear statement where she says she is quitting her appointment. Then check and see if she has actually launched any defamation action given her references to defamation. This sounds suspiciously like John Hickey suing Roger Grimes for stuff Danny Williams said: a huge pile of smoke to cover the catastrophe everyone else sees.

If that wasn’t enough, note, among other things, the change in her title in the Premier’s Office from the bio sketch in the letter on the appointment – “Senior Policy Advisor” - to “a senior advisor”. There’s a huge difference in the two. That’s just the tip of that iceberg.